Meniere’s Disease Causes Blackout
Death crash blackout
22dec05
A 73-YEAR-OLD George Town patient died in an ambulance crash caused when the driver suffered a blackout, a Launceston coroner has found.
Coroner Peter Wilson said Lindsay Henry Burt died of a heart attack after the ambulance he was in hit a power pole and rolled at Bell Bay in October 2004.
As a result of his findings Mr Wilson recommended all agency employed drivers of public vehicles be required to have medical examinations to test their awareness health.
Mr Burt was returning to George Town after a series of tests on his heart in Launceston.
Mr Wilson found that ambulance driver Christopher Parry lost consciousness after an episode related to Meniere’s disease.
Mr Parry has since stopped driving transport ambulances.
“Mr Parry remembers thinking of changing gears because of the roundabout but nothing else of his driving at the critical time apart from trying to avoid the power pole,” Mr Wilson said.
“In that time the vehicle travelled 120 metres.”
He also found that Mr Parry had a blocked coronary artery which could have indirectly caused a spontaneous loss of consciousness due to insufficient blood to the brain.
